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Re: Ok, I'm ready to see Paul George start now.

Now this isn't me bashing Mike by any means. I want to make that clear. I just think that George is improved enough and he's just better than Mike/Brandon/Jones at this point. He's so versatile and he's a very good passer for a rookie. Did you see that great dime by him to Hansbrough?

Re: Ok, I'm ready to see Paul George start now.

He is great to start against bad teams...

But what the hell... putting him out there vs Dwayne freakin Wade is putting Mike in a position to get him embarrassed and put the whole team at a serious disadvantage. Frank still has a long way to go. Though kudos to Frank for benching Mike to start the 2nd half. I think Mike got upset about that. Notice how he wasn't on the bench for the first half of the 3rd?

Re: Ok, I'm ready to see Paul George start now.

I wish Mike the best, but surely there is some good team in the western conference in need of his high basketball IQ and constant movement, along with a sweet expiring contract. They can sign him back up as a Pacer next year for a Dahntay Jones deal.

Everyone says the next draft is weak, but a draft pick and some young under performing bench warmer would be a nice swap before the trade deadline.

Re: Ok, I'm ready to see Paul George start now.

I hear his name brought up for MVP all the time. Right now, this year.

He's an All-Star caliber player on one of the league's top teams, perennially. That's good enough to make him an honorable mention in the MVP race. Of course, no one really thinks he has a chance to win it, just like we all knew J.O. or Peja or anyone else outside of about four or five players had a legitimate shot at the MVP 5-10 years ago.

Re: Ok, I'm ready to see Paul George start now.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Weighed down by high expectations coming into his rookie season, Indiana Pacers first round pick Paul George quickly ran into an issue he had never experienced before.

"It's just been a confidence factor," George told Action News. "Early on I wasn't playing and I got down on myself a little bit."

But Pacers President Larry Bird made a coaching change to get the team's young stars, like George, more playing time.

"I thought that Paul was going to be behind a little bit," Bird said at the coaching change press conference last month. "But now that he's playing pretty well I think that he's shown that if you get some confidence, get some time, you're going to get better."

And since the move, the former Bulldog has flourished.

"With the increase in minutes you can't do anything but progress because of that," said George. "That's been the key to my success right now. My teammates give me a lot of support really. When I'm out there they encourage me to keep on going. They'd like to see me do some spectacular plays. Some highlight plays."

And having Bird, an NBA legend, in his corner has erased all confidence problems from the first couple months of the season.

"Having the organization and the president behind you, that just gives you all the confidence in the world," said George. "I talk to Larry a countless amount of times. Just to pick his brain and see what he does to be so great. Larry is definitely someone I look up to and I'm happy to play for him."

And now George will look ahead to the remainder of his rookie season, to ensure his Pacers get back to the playoffs.

"Right now we're sitting in the 8th spot and that's right where we want to be," George said "We want to move up and continue to move up and try to get a better seed. But if we can make the playoffs, that's definitely an increase in production as opposed to last year."